A prominent dealer in poultry, Mr. H. W. Knapp, of Washington Market,
gives a discouraging opinion of the probable success of chicken raising
by artificial means in this country. He said recently when questioned on
this subject by a representative of the _Evening Post_:
"I went to France to study the matter, for if it can be made to succeed
it will make an immense fortune, as it has already done in Paris. I was
delighted with what I saw there, and the matter at first sight seems to
be so fascinating that I do not wonder that new men here are always
ready to take hold of it as soon as those who have bought dear
experience are only too glad to get out of it. Even clergymen and actors
are bitten with the desire to transform so many pounds of corn into so
many pounds of spring chicken. The now successful manager, Mackaye,
spent about a thousand dollars, in constructing hatching machines and
artificial mothers in Connecticut, but he found that the stage paid
better, and his expensive devices may now be bought for the value of old
tin.
"Enthusiasts will tell you that by the new discovery chickens may be
made out of corn with absolute certainty. In Paris this has been done;
but the conditions are entirely different here. There the land is
valuable, and they cannot devote large fields to a few hundred chickens;
the French climate is so uniform that the markets of Paris cannot be
supplied from the south with produce which ripens or matures before that
of the neighborhood of Paris; the price of chickens is so high and labor
so cheap that more care can be given with profit to one spring chicken
than one of our poultry raisers could give to a dozen. Here we have
plenty of land, the climate south of us is so far advanced in warmth
that even with steam we cannot raise poultry ahead of the south, and the
margin of profit is so small that one failure with a large batch of
chickens sweeps away the profits from several successful experiments.
"When persons wanted me to go into the project I declined and was called
an old fogy. One man spent a fortune on the enterprise in New Jersey,
and at first was hailed as a public benefactor. What was the result of
all his outlay and work? He managed to hatch quantities of young
chickens every February, but although he could fatten them by placing
them in boxes and forcing a fattening mixture down their throats, he
could not make them grow; they had no exercise; they remained puny
little things, and another defect soon appeared: though fat they were
tough and stringy. The breeder sent lots of them to me, and they looked
fat and tender; but my customers complained that they could not be
young, for they were tough and tasteless, and that I must have sold them
aged dwarfs under the name of spring chickens. It was found absolutely
necessary to let them run out of doors as soon as the weather allowed
it, and by the time that they were ready for market the southern
chickens were here and could be sold for less than these. The upshot of
the business is that this breeder has sold out, and another man has now
taken hold of a small part of his old establishment to try other methods
of making it a success.
"As to raising turkeys in that manner it will tail more disastrously
than the chicken business. Size and weight are wanted in turkeys; and
that reminds me," continued Mr. Knapp, "that the newspapers ought to
impress the country people with the necessity of improving their poultry
stock; breeding in and in is ruining poultry; every year the stock we
receive is deteriorating, and this is the cause. I could give you some
striking examples from my experience of forty years in the business.
Some years ago we poulterers thought that ducks were going to disappear
from bills of fare altogether; they were tasteless, worthless birds
which people avoided. On Long Island a farmer made experiments in
breeding with an old Muscovy drake, tough as an alligator, and the
common duck. The result was superb and has changed the whole duck
industry. If the farmers of Southern New Jersey, the sandy country best
suited to turkeys, would bring from the West a few hundred wild turkeys
we should have an immediate improvement. I see no such turkey now as we
had twenty years ago. The breast is narrow and the body runs to length;
it is all neck and legs, and can be bought by the yard. Rhode Island
sends us the best turkeys, but they are not what they used to be. If,
instead of attempting to beat nature at her own game, the rich men who
have money to spend would devote it to better breeding, there would be
an improvement. I do not yet despair of seeing immense farms wholly
devoted to raising better poultry than we yet have."
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